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Mauro Burzio was born in Venasca, in a valley north of Cuneo on our side of Occitania, the land where the Langue d'OC used to be spoken.
A former professor, (first of History and Philosophy and then Italian Literature) he left academia definitively in 1988 to dedicate himself full-time to photojournalism, collaborating with various newspapers in the fields of ethnography, alternative tourism, adventure and off-roading.
He traveled the length and breadth of Africa in a large off-road truck until 1992 when it was tragically destroyed after hitting a Cuban mine on the border of Namibia and Angola. Since then, he has traveled and lived in a Toyota Land Cruiser, which he revamped for his long trips over African terrain. He retraced on his own the last journey of Livingstone on his quest for the source of the Nile, the long trails of Arab slave traffickers and the coast to coast crossing of Henry Morton Stanley, going as far as the mouth of the Congo River, which he followed for over 2,000 km in a pontoon boat.
He was arrested by the secret service and accused of espionage for his photographic work in Zambia and Zaire.
Africa has given incredible experiences, fourteen cases of malaria, two of hepatitis, one of typhus and one of cholera, several broken bones and various infections as well as an enduring affection for baby elephants.
In 1993, he lived with Boscimani Ju\Wasi, who were staying in the western Kalahari to research the trances and music of the San.
In 1994-5 he was the guest of the Tanzanian Government and was commissioned to create a photographic book of the country. During that time, he worked with a Hadzapi nomadic tribe, hunters and gatherers who live on the shores of Lake Eyasi and follow a Paleolithic life style.
From the end of 1995 to the spring of 1997 he stayed in Benin, Togo and Ghana for a lengthy study of the Vodoun religion. Leaving Africa temporarily, he continued his research in Brazil, studying Candomblè, the Vodoun religion brought to the country by African slaves. He then returned to Northwest Africa for many months to complete his research on the mysteries of African Vodoun.
Subsequently, during a lengthy solitary trip through various African countries, he shot a large number of images of a variety of ethnic groups and collected many stories and legends for a project on the mythology of Africa that focuses on the men and wildlife of the country.
Between 1999 and 2000, he traveled far and wide throughout Australia, photographing the entire country and thousands of aboriginal rock paintings in poorly accessible areas.
In 2001, he abandoned Africa, shipping his precious Toyota to Latin America, where he spent over a year exploring Argentine Patagonia, following old indigenous trails along the Cordillera of the Andes down to the Tierra del Fuego.
In 2003 he traversed the entire country of Chile from south to north, stopping for a few months in the Atacama Desert in Iquique, a treasure trove of geoglyphs, mummies and pre-Inca culture.
In 2005, he arrived in Ecuador, where he undertook a study of Afro-American culture and religion. He spent many months in 2006 in the Amazon for an extensive anthropologic investigation of the culture of the Huaorani people.
In upcoming years, Burzio plans to study other Ecuadorian and Amazonian ethnic groups including the Shuar and the Napo Runa of Quichua.
He will also continue his travels northward following the Pan-American Highway along the Pacific coast, up to Alaska. From there he will travel to China and then return to Italy along Marco Polo’s Silk Road from Peking to Venice, always in his trusty Toyota, completing the last leg of an over 25-year journey.
Bibliography
He regularly collaborates with OASIS, the Italian magazine of environmental culture and anthropology, in which he writes the extended monthly column, “ADVENTURES IN FIVE CONTINENTS. THE TRAVEL DIARY OF MAURO BURZIO”.
As well as providing numerous journalistic articles and photography for various magazines, he has completed a photographic CD for Finson (Milan): Egypt, African Herbivores, African Cats, Malawi, Morocco, Mauritania, Namibia, South Africa, Senegal, Tanzania, Zaire, Zimbabwe.
| author of the following Photographic books : |
| Namibia |
La Gemma dell'Africa, G.Mondadori, Milano, 1992 |
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| Zimbabwe |
Il Regno dell' Oro, G. Mondadori -VELAR Bergamo, 1994 |
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| Sud Africa |
il Paese dell'Oro e dei Diamanti, IDEA Libri -VELAR Bergamo, 1998 |
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| Tanzania |
Viaggio nella storia e nel paese, IDEA Libri-VELAR, 1998 |
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| VODOUN: RITI E MISTERI d'AFRICA |
RUSCONI -Velar, 1999 |
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| ANIMALI AFRICANI |
Miti e Leggende, IDEA Libri- VELAR, 2000 |
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| UOMINI AFRICANI |
Miti e Leggende, edizioni VELAR, Bergamo, 2001 |
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ANIMALI D'AFRICA |
Mondadori Elemond, Milano, 2002 (tradotto in inglese, francese e spagnolo) |
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| AUSTRALIA |
Mondadori Elemond, Milano, 2003 |
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| VIAGGIO TRA GLI DEI AFRICANI |
Mondadori , Milano 2005 |
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| CUENTOS NOMADAS |
(con testi di Maria Eugenia Delgado), editoriale Trama, Quito, 2007. |
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| GALAPAGOS, LAS ISLAS DEL TIEMPO |
Trama, Quito, 2007 (www.librogalapagos.com)
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| HUAORANI, LOS ULTIMOS GUERREROS |
Trama, Quito, 2007
(www.librohuaorani.com) |
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